Assignment

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1 - Literature Circles - Continuous project until October 20, 2011 - 20% of :inal grade Class will be formed into 3 or 4 groups. Each group will be reading an en-re novel.

Group 1- Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi- Persepolis paints an unforgeAable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradicDons between home life and public life. Marjanes childs-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sancDoned whippings, and heroes of the revoluDon allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinaDng country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly poliDcal, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and poliDcal repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, nally, it introduces us to an irresisDble liAle girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love. Group 2- The Reader, Bernhard Schlink Hailed for the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany. When he falls ill on his way home from school, Qeen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In Dme she becomes his loverthen she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder. Group 3- The Hunger Games -Suzanne Collins - In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the naDon of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a ght to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience parDcipaDon may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

Group 4- Dreams from My Father-Barack Obama- Nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most inuenDal and compelling voices in American poliDcs, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsenDmental, and powerfully aecDng memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama's struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother-a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the Dny African village of Alego. Obama opens his story in New York, where he hears that his father-a gure he knows more as a myth than as a man-has died in a car accident. The news triggers a chain of memories as Barack retraces his family's unusual history: the migraDon of his mother's family from small-town Kansas to the Hawaiian islands; the love that develops between his mother and a promising young Kenyan student, a love nurtured by youthful innocence and the integraDonist spirit of the early sixDes; his father's departure from Hawaii when Barack was two, as the realiDes of race and power reassert themselves; and Barack's own awakening to the fears and doubts that exist not just between the larger black and white worlds but within himself. Students will select the book they are most interested in, if student is unsure teacher will select a group for the student. Each student will need to have a specifc role within the group. The role will remain the same for each meeDng. MeeDng Dmes are specied below.
1. discussion director - develops questions for the group to discuss 2. passage picker or literary luminary - chooses a selection that the group rereads and discusses because it is interesting, informative, the climax, well written.... 3. vocabulary enricher - chooses words that are difficult or used in an unfamiliar way 4. connector - finds a connection between the story and another book, event in their personal llife or the outside world 5. illustrator - draws a picture related to the reading 6. summarizer - prepares a brief summary of the passage read that day 7. travel tracer - tracks the movement when the characters move a lot 8. investigator - looks up background information related to the book Detailed information on each role will be provided to you. Each group member will prepare a written document of his/her contribution. You must print out a copy for each group member and hand a copy into the instructor. You will then collect all of the group work into one package and submit it to the teacher on October 20, 2011. Presentation: Each group will also prepare a presentation on their book. Each presentation must include: 1) 2) 3) 4) A summary of the book (brief) A visual representation of the book A scene (live or filmed) from the book A written 500 word summary of the entire book, approved by the

 Discussion dates: September 8, 15, 22, 29, Oct 6, 13 75 minute discussion Book nished and class presenta-ons start: Oct 20, 2011 Journal assignment 10% of nal mark. In an excercise book or notebook you will collect all of the in class journal entries and submit it for correcCons on Oct 27, 2011. You should check each assignment for clarity and you do have the opCon to type your entries. Entries will be assignned in class and their must be a minimum of 10 entries in the book. Formal Essay- 15% of nal mark you will write a 850-1000 word essay on the book that you read in literature circles. Essay quesDons will be provided to you when you receive your books for literature circles. Your responses must include considerable evidence from the texts and demonstrate an excepDonal commitment to quality wriDng. Quizzes - 10% of nal mark. There will be 5 quizzes based on class discussions, lectures, and readings. They will be surprise quizzes and only the four best marks will be counted. Class Par-cipa-on- 5% of nal mark-- Based on your compleDon of class acDviDes and parDcipaDon in class discussions. If you are absent oQen, if you do not parDcipate in class discussions you will receive a zero for class parDcipaDon. FINAL EXAM 40% There will be a 1.5 hour formal nal exam that will cover all of the material from class and in the readings. to be scheduled.